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Girl in Italy dies after allegedly playing ‘Blackout Challenge’ on TikTok

Parents were warned to closely monitor their children’s activity in social media after a 10-year-old girl in Italy died allegedly because of ‘Blackout Challenge’ on the popular video-sharing platform TikTok.

The girl was found dead with her phone and according to report, the girl allegedly participated in the “blackout challenge,” a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Italian prosecutors have started looking into the girls accidental death of this young girl.

Italy has announced it had temporarily blocked access to TikTok for users whose age could not be proved definitively, the report said.

According to the AFP report, the girl died in a Palermo hospital after being discovered last January 20 by her five-year-old sister in their bathroom.

The girl’s cell phone was near the girl’s body. The cellphone was seized by police for examination.

Medical experts have warned about the danger of the challenge being taken up by some teenagers.

The challenge is called “scarfing” or “the choking game” in which restricted oxygen to the brain results in a high.

The girl’s parents told La Repubblica newspaper that another daughter explained that her sister “was playing the blackout game.”

“We didn’t know anything. We didn’t know she was participating in this game. We knew that (our daughter) went on TikTok for dances, to look at videos. How could I imagine this atrocity?” the girl’s father was quoted in the newspaper report.

TikTok’s terms and conditions showed that users must be at least 13-years-old.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said last January 22 that it has not been able to identify any content on its site that could have encouraged the girl to participate in any such challenge.

TikTok assured it will cooperate in the investigation.

The Italian Data Protection Authority has warned that it would it would block the TikTok if it fails to meet the regulator’s demands.

Italy’s data protection agency has already filed charges against TikTok in December for alleged “lack of attention to the protection of minors.” (CC)

Staff Report

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